The dead tell tales

At a talk to the Waikato Historical Society by Peter Rothwell we were shown a photograph of the beautifully engraved silver trowel presented to Andrew Primrose on the occasion of the laying of the foundation stone for a new block at Waikato Hospital on July 1,

1905. The first part (Ward One) opened in 1906 and was the first substantial building, in permanent materials, at the hospital. Andrew Primrose was chosen to do the honours with the foundation stone as he had been chairman of the Hospital Board for the previous three years and was a prime mover in getting the building under way.

Primrose, who was born in Scotland, came to New Zealand in

1865. His wife Isabella and their children (Elizabeth, John, George and James) followed a year later. They lived in Howick for a year and then came to Hamilton. Primrose bought a large piece of land in what was then to the north of Hamilton, but is now well within the city boundary. The site of their house and farm, Cherrybrook, includes St Paul’s Collegiate, and some of the trees that son Jim [James] planted when he was a boy still existed within the school grounds at least until 1982. (Does anyone know if they are still there?)

He was one of the influx of settlers with some money to come into the district and through developing the land into arable farming provided employment to ex-militiamen who were struggling to survive. HCM Norris in ‘‘Armed Settlers’’ describes him as ‘‘big, with a huge breadth of shoulder, good humoured and jovial, [who] gave many years of public service to the Hamilton district’’. Primrose was also distinguished by a large white beard, easy to spot in group photographs.

Some of that public service was seen in his performance on the hospital board; he was also on the Waikato County Council for many years, as chairman for most of that time. He was also chairman of the Waikato Farmers Club. Before coming to New Zealand Andrew Primrose had been involved with a model farm school in Ireland and saw the need and possibilities of a similar institution here – he was instrumental in establishing the model farm that subsequently became part of the Ruakura agricultural Research Station. An advertisement placed in June 1888 by Primrose as chairman of the county council, advises that a bill was before parliament to have 137 acres invested in council for the proposed agricultural college and model farm ‘‘where [people] may acquire knowledge in practical farming’’.

The Primroses’ first farm was 500 acres in extent, and a few years later he bought another 450 acres further north at Hukanui [Gordonton]. Two sons, Jim and John farmed there; another son George settled instead at Gisborne as a saddle and harness maker.

An early photograph of Cherrybrook shows the house was a simple weatherboard cottage with a shingle roof, with the verandah roof struggling to support the weight of a prolific grape vine. Andrew and Isabella are on the verandah with a large black-and-white collie.

Andrew Primrose was a regular worshipper at St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Hamilton East, and he was leaving for church one Sunday morning in June 1913 when he was taken ill and died a while later. He was a prominent member of Lodge Beta-Waikato, serving several terms as W.M., and was Grand Bible Bearer in the Grand Lodge of New Zealand in 1891. He was buried in the Masonic Block at Hamilton East Cemetery but the exact location of his grave is not known.